“I’m afraid we don’t have the resources to keep you anymore.”

“I beg your pardon?” Minseok’s pretty sure he knows what’s in store for him already but he interjects anyway, maybe to get a more definite answer out of his boss, or maybe to buy a little more time for those words to sink into his own brain.

“This is a very regretful decision that the board and I have had to make, given the recent circumstances. You’ve been a tremendous asset to the company, but these financial setbacks—”

“You’re firing me. Just say it.” Minseok deadpans, wishing Kim Junmyeon would stop beating around the bush for the first time in his life.

Junmyeon isn’t at all surprised by Minseok's bluntness, having worked with the man for almost three years now, and he throws his hands up in defeat. “Yes, Minseok, I’m letting you go. I’m truly sorry and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Thank you for all of your hard work in these past few years. If you need any advice, any references, anything, I’m just an e-mail away.”

Minseok can’t say that he didn’t see it coming, given the way Junmyeon’s been slowly and less-than-subtlely allocating his tasks to other people in his department, so he’s a little mad at himself for being such a crybaby about it. Sure, Suwon Technologies gave him his first job when he was fresh out of college, and three years of manipulating software have made him a decent programmer, but it’s not like he doesn’t have other skills to offer, either. It just hurts his ego, having to walk out of the office because he was fired—laid off—and not out of his own volition.

His boss was gracious enough to give him the rest of the week to clean out his belongings, but Minseok would rather kill two birds with one stone, stuffing a cardboard box full of his old hard drives and calendars and framed pictures of him and Lu Han looking ridiculous in Hawaiian shirts. He says his goodbyes, too, to coworkers who have seen him at his worst too many times (running on zero sleep and too much caffeine when there was a deadline to catch), and they all say variations of any company would be lucky to have you and keep in touch, okay? just to make Minseok feel that much more bitter about leaving.

As he sits in his rolling chair and beholds his now-empty cubicle, he realizes that it might be a bit difficult to lug three years of accumulated office materials onto the bus and up eight flights of stairs to his apartment (the elevator is still broken after three weeks, and Minseok thinks he might just take his boyfriend up on his offer to fix the damned thing himself).

And speaking of his boyfriend—Minseok has one missed call from Lu Han, but it’s already 9 AM and Lu Han is probably overseeing that six-figure transaction right now. Minseok contemplates returning the call, but he knows that the only time Lu Han can talk is when he’s huddled up in the men’s restroom stall, whispering and giggling into the receiver like a kid even though he’s employed under one of Seoul’s most established banks.

Lu Han is a model employee by all definitions but he’s currently on shaky terms with his supervisor for downloading Skype on his work computer (Minseok had instructed him to do it on his phone, your phone, Han, but Lu Han has never been good with technology or instructions anyway), and Minseok doesn’t want to get him into even more trouble by eating up his work hours.

From the 28th floor of his (ex) office building, Minseok sees that it’s still raining—pouring, actually. He thinks that the bleak gray of the sky pairs up quite nicely with his current mood, and maybe with the state of his soul as well. And even though he’s all packed up and his (ex) coworkers are starting to eye him nervously, as if he’s waiting for the right time to assassinate their boss or detonate a retributive bomb, the (ex) programmer reclines in his chair and decides to wait out the storm. He’s not about to get fired and then drenched all in the same afternoon—that would just be too ironic.

A face peeks up from the cubicle divider. Minseok sighs and crooks a finger at Jongdae, who immediately traverses the two feet to perch himself upon Minseok’s barren desk. His feet that normally swing from side to side are now crossed, and his usual jokes are masked with sobriety.

“Hey man, I heard the news. I’m really sorry.” Jongdae looks and sounds genuinely sympathetic, but even though Minseok feels like he certainly doesn’t want a pity party right now. He at least wants to leave this workplace with his head held high, even if it means he'll crash that much harder the moment he gets home.

“Why are you sorry? I just hope you’re ready to debug all of my unfinished code,” Minseok cracks a weak smile. He thinks he’s stronger than this, doesn’t need to be treated like his feelings are made out of glass, and yet that unmistakable knot has begun to coil in his throat. Jongdae doesn’t buy into his façade, either, but he relents with a pout when Minseok shoos him off the desk and tells him to get back to work before Junmyeon fires him, too.

The heavy rain is still going strong and when Minseok checks his phone again it’s 10:36 AM and he has two text messages from Lu Han, one missed call from Baekhyun.

From: Lu Han

minnie~work is so boring.. i wish ur cute was here

From: Lu Han

minseok? are u ok??

Minseok sighs because why does his boyfriend insist on typing like a five-year-old when he sounds so eloquent in his consultation e-mails? It’s so Lu Han to get worked up over an hour of silence and he’s probably envisioning scenarios where Minseok has been kidnapped and smuggled to a foreign country and Minseok should really stop keeping his phone on silent if he wants his paranoid boyfriend to live past thirty.

And that’s another thing—Lu Han, who is horribly oblivious on a normal day, is arguably the most attentive person in the world when it comes to his dumpling of a boyfriend. And while Minseok is able to get away with some things, like pretending his eyes don’t water during sad movies and stifling his laughs at Lu Han’s puns that he insists are not funny, he doesn’t know how long he’ll be able to hide this horribly inconvenient piece of news.

To: Lu Han

I’m fine, sweetheart. Sorry I missed your call, I just didn’t want to distract you at work.

It doesn’t take more than a minute for a response to flash on his screen.

From: Lu Han

im not distracted!! stupid kris just writes me up 4 evrything bc he wants me fired

The word fired strikes a bitter chord in Minseok’s gut, and he pushes down the queasy feeling long enough to tap out a reply.

To: Lu Han

Well then let’s talk later because I don’t want you to lose your job. Be good, okay?

Minseok hovers over the ‘send’ button before deciding that it doesn’t sound like him at all. It’s tainted with some sort of gravity that Lu Han will be sure to pick up on, so Minseok adds a gratuitous winky emoticon at the end and hopes that it will make everything better.

But it doesn’t.

From: Lu Han

no no im txting u from underneath my desk so dont worry ; )

From: Lu Han

wait whats the matter baby?

The more Minseok thinks about it, the more he realizes that Lu Han probably already has a good idea of what happened. And it’s all Minseok’s fault, because he’s been the one complaining for the past few weeks about how his boss cuts him a little too much slack and joking that maybe, just maybe, it’s because he’s prepping Minseok to be fired. A of fine irony has landed Minseok in this position, and oh, how he hates the irony.

He holds off on responding to the text, unsure of what to say next because Lu Han isn’t afraid to rush halfway across the city at the slightest indication that Minseok isn’t feeling well, and that will make Kris write him up for skipping out on work hours and soon the two of them will be in the same boat in a sea of unemployment.

Lu Han is too stupidly caring for his own good, and as much as Minseok loves being showered by his affections he’s not selfish enough to drag his mood down with him. And so he closes the text conversation and dials Baekhyun’s number instead.

The line drags out four long rings before a voice finally picks up.

“Hey! What took you so long?!”

Minseok hears a low voice rumbling behind Baekhyun’s and he can only deduce that it belongs to Chanyeol. “Sorry, I got a little carried away at work. You called?”

“Well, I needed your opinio